Scottish football club amongst those hit by accidental 123-reg website deletions

According to its own website, 123-reg has three million domain names and hosts in excess of 1.7m websites. This, it claims, makes it the “largest domain provider in the UK”.

An initial statement revealed customers on 123-reg’s VPS platform were experiencing “connectivity issues”. An updated statement then stated some customers were subject to “denigrated service levels” and that extra resources had been allocated to “expedite” the fix.

However, businesses such as Scottish football team Ross County are still without a functioning website and are unable to sell tickets online.

Amongst the complaints on social media was a tweet from Phil Emerson, who said: “Do not use @123reg for your hosting. They just accidentally deleted my two VPSs, losing all my customer’s data. No apology, no compensation.”

Do not use @123reg for your hosting. They just accidentally deleted my two VPSs, losing all my customer’s data. No apology, no compensation.

— Phil Emerson (@philemerson) April 18, 2016

Meanwhile, Paul King said: “I’m preparing a list for legal action re compensation (sic). Interested parties should email me.”

Commenting on the problem being faced by customers of 123-reg, Tim Ryan, executive chairman at UNA, an organisation owned by 11 of the UK’s largest insurance brokers, said: “The news that web hosting firm 123-reg has accidentally deleted an unspecified number of its customers’ websites should act as another wake up call to UK businesses of all shapes and sizes.

“Heads of internal and external audit need to constantly reassess the major risks facing their organisations and ensure they spot new threats as they emerge. The growing popularity of the use of hosting sites like 123-reg, particularly by smaller and micro businesses, increases the element of risk meaning they are in the firing line if things go wrong and in this case, it could have a severe impact on a company’s bottom-line and reputation.”

Despite pressure, 123-reg has not revealed how many of its 800,000 UK customers have been impacted by the system error – instead describing it as a “small portion”. Those being affected us a virtual private server (VPS) a cheaper alternative to a private server.

In a statement issued to the BBC, 123-reg revealed it did not have a backup copy of all its customers’ data, but was working with a data recovery specialist to “manage the process of restoration”.

Aggrieved customers, like Its a Puzzle Thing, which tweeted that the issue with “wreck” the business and “plenty of others”, are frustrated that 123-reg is requesting customer with local backups of their VPS to “rebuild their servers” using online support articles.

@ianhamilton_ @123reg this should hit the news. Just to make others aware . This will wreck my business & plenty of others I am sure

— Its a Puzzle Thing (@itsapuzzlething) April 18, 2016

Confectionary business Lady Chocolate has asked customers to contact it for a full menu, with all vouchers or promos being honoured.

It also wants to know when a statement or information on compensation will be released by 123-reg.

@123reg When can we expect a statement or information from you about compensation for those of us who you have permanently deleted?#123reg

— Lady Chocolate Ltd (@MyLadyChocolate) April 19, 2016

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